Californians Angered Over Office Closing

Other Californians are upset about the possibility of the opening of a Social Security office, but residents of San Pedro have the opposite concern. From the DailyBreeze.com:

The San Pedro office of the Social Security Administration shuts its doors today, angering local lawmakers who had been told the branch would remain open another year. ...

"To say that this is unacceptable to us and to the residents of San Pedro and Wilmington who will be unfairly inconvenienced is an understatement," said U.S. Rep. Jane Harman, D-El Segundo, in a letter to Social Security Administration Commissioner Michael J. Astrue.

Harman was joined by other representatives - state Assemblywoman Betty Karnette, Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe and Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn - in objecting to the closure, which they said comes a year before the agency's lease for the San Pedro office expires and flies in the face of an agreement worked out earlier to keep the office open awhile longer.

Monthly Social Security Stats

The Social Security Administration has released its monthly statistical compilations for Title II and Title XVI of the Social Security Act.

Social Security Medical Experts

I took a look recently at the documents connected with Social Security's process for hiring physicians as Medical Experts (ME). This caught my eye:

The ME shall maintain a satisfactory quality level of performance when reviewing disability case files. The ME’s level of performance shall be identified through the Office of Medical and Vocational Expertise (OMVE) quality assurance program and its policies and procedures. OMVE will randomly sample 1 or 2 completed work products per ME per month. The work will be reviewed by OMVE full time staff for compliance with SSA policy and procedures, completeness, and accuracy of medical assessment of severity and functional ability. Feedback documentation will be provided to the ME. The ME will have the opportunity to discuss any noted deficiency with OMVE staff and will make the agreed upon corrections to the appropriate documents.

The announcement appears to cover both MEs who testify at hearings before Social Security Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) as well as those who work for Social Security's regional and central offices. I hope these quality assurance reviews do not apply now and are not intended to ever apply to MEs testifying before ALJs.

I Don't Understand

From the Visalia (CA) Times-Delta:

Plans to build a Social Security Administration field office in east Visalia are teetering on the brink of collapse after a neighborhood informational meeting Tuesday night degenerated into chaos for the La Jolla-based developer in charge of the project. ...

Asked if the Social Security building would go up even if residents and the city oppose it, Metz said: "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." ...

The session exploded into a free-for-all after local architect Lyle Munsch of Visalia-based Canby Associates, who has been working on plans for the Social Security building since February, tried to describe the building's design and aesthetic qualities.

"I don't care if Picasso paints a bucket of garbage, it's still a bucket of garbage," resident George Landis said.

Landis' sentiment was echoed by others, who shouted down Munsch, forcing him to discontinue his presentation. ...

Representatives of the GSA and Social Security Administration were invited to the meeting but did not attend.

Can someone who lives in that part of the world explain this to me? I think that the residents of most cities would welcome a Social Security office. Are they worried that poor people might visit an office in their midst?

Temporary Spending Measure Passed

From Reuters:

The Senate on Thursday passed and sent to President George W. Bush a temporary spending measure to keep the federal government running through November 16, giving Democrats and Republicans time to work out budget disagreements.

By a nearly unanimous vote of 94-1, the Senate approved the bill that is designed to avert government shutdowns that could have begun as early as next Monday if agencies ran out of money on the first day of the new fiscal year.

The legislation, which Bush is expected to sign into law, is needed because Congress failed to complete any of the 12 regular spending bills to fund government programs beginning October 1. The U.S. House of Representatives approved the temporary funds on Wednesday.

Warning About Lack Of Budget

David Traver on the CONNECT board is posting an e-mail that was sent to employees of the Michigan Disability Determination Service (DDS) warning that the federal fiscal year ends on September 30 and no new budget has been adopted for the next fiscal year. Michigan DDS is funded by the same budget that funds the Social Security Administration itself. Neither Michigan DDS nor Social Security can open for business next Monday without a budget. This e-mail advises Michigan DDS employees of procedures if this should happen.

There is no reason for alarm about this. There is every reason to believe that Congress will pass and the President will sign a stopgap continuing funding resolution before Monday, but the delay can make one a little nervous.

Justia

Those of you who are really adept at PACER, the paperless system used by the Federal Courts, are probably already familiar with Justia, I find it to be a revelation. Did you know that you can find out exactly how many Social Security cases were filed in the Federal District Courts yesterday? You can. The number was 28. You can tell where the complaints were filed and the name of the plaintiff. You can then go use PACER (if you have an account) to view the complaint and discover the name of the attorney. You can do this for any time period since the beginning of 2004, although, apparently, Justia has trouble if the search would find more than about 50 cases. Also, there is no way to make it count the number of cases for you -- or at least I have not yet been able to figure out how to do this.

Disability In Norway

The Norway Post reports that 10% of the working population of Norway is on "disability allowance." This is an increase of 3% from last year.